#church size

[faithroots74]

Church planting – is there a size not to aim for?

I sometimes get asked whether I think there’s an optimum church size to aim for.  My response is usually to the effect that there isn’t an optimum size.  Some people are happy in and with larger church gatherings.  There are benefits to this.  It means that a preacher can open God’s Word with a lot of people, it means that the church has a lot of resources when it comes to care, discipleship,…

View On WordPress

[pastordude87]

Strengh in Numbers ... or ... Strength in Smallness

Strengh in Numbers … or … Strength in Smallness

My son serves at a church that has 17,000 people every Sunday morning. That’s the same as the population of the county where I live. Their membership is around 45,000. And they are not even the largest in Dallas (3rd I think). My church, and I love it, is not that size … and I’m quite okay with that. We are not as small as the church in the picture, but it’s such an artistic shot I had to use it.

View On WordPress

[johnkoessler]

Ugly Duckling Theology

I was looking at the results of a major survey of pastors the other day and noticed a trend. Pastors of small churches are more likely to be less energized by their ministry than those who serve large churches. They are also more inclined to question their calling. The message seems to be twofold. First, large churches are more fun than small churches. Second, those who serve small congregations…

View On WordPress

[culturaltourist]

Chris Tomlin, Passion and Hillsong have definitely radically affected the "worship and praise" culture for many churches (which I think is great) but at the same time for many seeing/being at huge conferences like Passion they quickly realize that many elements feel like...a concert. Dr. Tim Keller in his article "Leadership and Church Size Dynamics" writes:

"Every church has a culture that goes with its size and which must be accepted. Most people tend to prefer a certain size culture, and unfortunately, many give their favorite size culture a moral status and treat other size categories as spiritually and morally inferior. They may insist that the only biblical way to do church is to practice a certain size culture despite the fact that the congregation they attend is much too big or too small to fit that culture."

While there are many elements of a "concert"...does it mean it's good/bad? Integrating contemporary elements (such as videos) into "church" almost feels like a necessity for engagement when you gather a room with 20,000+ young adults. On the other hand, having been at many contemporary young adult churches, I also hear lots of "criticisms" on how other churches are just too "old and boring" (a thought that's crossed my mind many times) but yet...are they "supposed" to follow the culture of contemporary young adult churches when they're not that?

This quick reflection has just opened up more questions for me on what it means to make the Gospel "relevant" to our culture...an enterprise where even the audience size alone can be such a huge factor in how we communicate a message.

[callmewomanblog]

People tend to wrongly attach a moral value to church size. This explains why big churches are accused of being uncaring and small churches are accused of not reaching people or being well-led or organized.... [Some] will accuse those who care about numbers to be simply pragmatic, as if wanting more people to meet Jesus and grow in grace was a bad thing. After all, the fourth book of the Bible is called Numbers, and Acts likes to often tell us how many people were in the early church, such as 120 in the beginning and then the exact thousands that were added at various points.... If a church is unwilling to change their methodology to reach and care for more people, then it is guilty of methodolatry, which is where we confuse unchanging biblical principles with what are supposed to be changing cultural methods.

Mark Driscoll, "Some Thoughts on Church Size"